It goes back to the days when this untamed land had only just become a part of the young nation of America. This region was part of the vast Louisiana Purchase of 1803, when the United States acquired the 827,000 square miles of land from France for $15 million.

A year later, President Thomas Jefferson sent an expedition up the Missouri River from St. Louis to explore the northern reaches of the new territory.

Led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the expedition, known as the Corps of Discovery, moved up the river and reached the area now known as Yankton in late August 1804. They signed a peace treaty with the Yankton Sioux Indians, formalizing the deal on what is now called Calumet Bluff on the south side of the river about five miles west of the present-day site of Yankton.

According to legend, Lewis and Clark made a token gesture of peace by wrapping a newborn Indian baby in an American flag. That baby grew up to become the Sioux chief Struck-By-The-Ree, who was one of the moving forces behind the Treaty of 1858 which opened up much of what would become Dakota Territory for settlement.

The treaty set the stage for the founding of Yankton. The first settlements were built along a stream then known as Rhine Creek (it was changed to Marne Creek during World War I, honoring America's French ally and snubbing the Germanic heritage of the original moniker). The early settlement was often referred to as Old Strike's Camp of Charlie's Town, so named after early settler Charles Picotte.

The city was a thriving river town in its early days and was designated as the first capital of Dakota Territory.

Yankton faced its first real frontier threat with the so-called Scare of 1862. When the Santee Sioux of Minnesota instigated an uprising against the surge of white settlers, and the hostility sent shockwaves into neighboring Dakota. Although no war ever developed in the Yankton area, some violence was reported east of the village near Mission Hill. The Yankton stockade was built to house all area white settlers. Fortunately, it was never needed and the stockade was dismantled.

America's will to move west made Yankton an important crossroads. In 1873, Lt. Col. George Custer brought his Seventh Calvary to Yankton on its way west to the Black Hills -- a mysterious and alluring bank of mountains where the discovery of gold would soon change the territory forever. Custer, his wife Libbie and his soldiers were in Yankton for three weeks in the spring of 1873, enjoying the booming city's hospitality and surviving a ferocious April blizzard. Also, Custer battled pneumonia at this time and was gravely ill at one point. Although Custer's stay in Yankton was brief, his impact on its history still remains.

When gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874, it had a ripple effect throughout Dakota Territory. Yankton also felt this effect with the arrival of thousands of prospectors and dreamers. The town's weekly newspaper, the Press and Dakotoian, began publishing daily editions of a section called the Yankton Black Hiller to meet the hungry information needs of the gold-miners. This led to the Press and Dakotoian becoming a daily in April 1875.

The gold rush brought people of all types and characters west. On Aug. 2, 1876, the legendary Wild Bill Hickok, sheriff of the booming Black Hills town of Deadwood, was gunned down while playing cards in the Number 10 Saloon. His accused murderer, Jack McCall, was apprehended -- exact whereabouts are in dispute -- and his trial was held in the territorial capital of Yankton. McCall was convicted and hung on March 1, 1877.

Yankton was a leader in the electronic communication age. In 1922, a small radio station went on the air with sporadic programming -- a small start for what would become one of the most powerful radio voices in the Midwest. WNAX grew into a broadcasting giant, and it provided the break an unknown musician named Lawrence Welk needed to make a name for himself. It was his springboard to greatness.

The Missouri River, the giver of life for so many frontier towns in the 19th century, was also one of Yankton's chief tormentors. Periodic floods were destructive and deadly, and simply crossing the river was a precarious task. But in 1919, Yankton began the effort to build a permanent structure across the river. Finally, in 1924, the Meridian Bridge, a double-deck deck draw bridge, was officially opened to traffic. Much of the bridge was funded locally; thus, the bridge was a toll bridge for 29 years. The debt was finally retired in December 1953.

Having found a way to cross the Missouri, the river's destructive force and unrealized potential was the next goal for Yanktonians. In 1957, Gavins Point Dam was officially christened about five miles west of the city. The dam, part of a chain of six man-made dams constructed on the upper Missouri River through the Pick-Sloan Act, tamed the river and produced affordable and bountiful hydroelectric power for the region. It also created Lewis and Clark Lake, which has become one of the area's main tourist attractions. It draws more than a million visitors a year for boating, camping, swimming, fishing and other outdoor activities.

One of the institutional staples of Yankton had always been Yankton College, which was founded in 1881 and was the oldest private college in Dakota. However, the college was struggling financially by the 1970s and, in 1984, it closed its doors after 103 years. It was a sad end to the old college, but it also offered a new beginning for Yankton. The federal government purchased the property and opened the Yankton Federal Prison Camp in 1988. In the process, the campus was renovated and the facility has become an important employer in the local economy.

In 1999, the Yankton Press & Dakotan conducted its Poll of the Century, asking its print and online readers to name their top personalities and events in the 20th century. NBC News anchorman and managing editor Tom Brokaw, who graduated from Yankton High School, was named the Local Personality of the Century. The building of Meridian Bridge was chosen as the top Local Event of the Century.